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"Tell me the worst night of your professional career." A sit-down story with Bill Hicks.
posted by Taft at 10:11 PM PST - 39 comments

Neutered feral cats, scuba dives and nightly repainting: What goes on in Disneyland after dark.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 9:16 PM PST - 58 comments

...[John] Adams’s Koran [Qur'an] had a strong New England pedigree. The first Koran published in the United States, it was printed in Springfield in 1806.
posted by orthogonality at 8:42 PM PST - 22 comments

The Sacrifice! Valve Software releases a 4-part comic that chronicles what happens to Francis, Louis, Zoey, and Bill at the end of the original Left 4 Dead. [more inside]
posted by kbanas at 8:40 PM PST - 15 comments

We make this pledge bearing true faith and allegiance to the people we represent, and we invite fellow citizens and patriots to join us in forming a new governing agenda for America. [more inside]
posted by Mister Fabulous at 5:59 PM PST - 468 comments

Everyday Cute: Is Cute Everyday.
posted by The Whelk at 5:27 PM PST - 12 comments

I don't know about you, but as a woman, I sure do like the moon, being curvy, dancing in groups (especially in groups of three), bright colors, embracing hope, looking like a prehistoric rock painting and/or sculpture, and becoming a tree. [URL possibly NSFW] (via)
posted by Countess Elena at 5:20 PM PST - 49 comments

In honour of Chinese jade hitting $3,000 an ounce, a quick context of what one ounce buys... $1300 $883 $350 $51.93 $20.08 $4.74
posted by nickrussell at 3:00 PM PST - 38 comments

Towering over New Hampshire at a height of 6,288 feet, Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States. It has been ascended by countless hikers from all walks of life, including (for the first time ever) a paralyzed dog. [more inside]
posted by dhammond at 2:51 PM PST - 42 comments

The Humournet Collage Archive is an artifact of of the Old Web consisting of hundreds of .txt collages (422 to be exact) of jokes and anecdotes, originally issued as part of the HumourNet mailing list. Sometimes the moderator's opener is as funny as the content.
posted by griphus at 2:50 PM PST - 4 comments

For millions of addicts around the world, Alcoholics Anonymous's basic text - informally known as the Big Book - is the Bible. And as they're about to find out, the Bible was edited. After being hidden away for nearly 70 years and then auctioned twice, the original manuscript by AA co-founder Bill Wilson is about to become public for the first time next week, complete with edits by Wilson-picked commenters that reveal a profound debate in 1939 about how overtly to talk about God.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:53 PM PST - 77 comments

Dictaphone Parcel. Lauri Warsta put a tape recorder inside a box, set it recording, sealed up the box, sent it from London to Finland through the post, then animated the captured audio. Previously
posted by sleepcrime at 1:42 PM PST - 13 comments

Europe according to... is a project to map stereotypes of European countries according to other countries and groups of people. [more inside]
posted by desjardins at 1:05 PM PST - 57 comments

"And if you really think about it, the only reason somebody gets out in the middle of the night and buys baby formula is that they need it, and they've been waiting for it. Otherwise, we are open 24 hours -- come at 5 a.m., come at 7 a.m., come at 10 a.m. But if you are there at midnight, you are there for a reason."
posted by jefficator at 12:24 PM PST - 134 comments

David Bowie Standup. That is all.
posted by yellowbinder at 11:58 AM PST - 45 comments

Feign is a flash maze game by Ian Snyder with music by Brother Android. It is set in a kind of funky Escher-like space. (windows only bonus: Hazard: The Journey of Life by Alexander Bruce)
posted by juv3nal at 11:53 AM PST - 23 comments

Flying Swarming Robots
posted by rouftop at 11:44 AM PST - 9 comments

The Serbian folk tradition of weaving and shaping straws of wheat, by artists who call themselves straw-girls (slamarke divojke), is showcased in the trailer for Branko Istvancic's documentary film "From Grain To Painting" [more inside]
posted by various at 11:23 AM PST - 5 comments

BDBGS! Last time Christian Swinehart was on metafilter, it was for his gorgeous visualizations of the narrative pathways contained in the Choose Your Own Adventure books. His new interactive visualizations plot bedbug reports in New York City between 2004 and the present. [more inside]
posted by scarylarry at 10:50 AM PST - 19 comments

It's been an oxymoronic chemical curiosity since 1968, but "Dry Water" is getting some buzz of late, mainly because of newly discovered applications. Like its ability to absorb gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. How long before molecular gastronomists figure out something clever to do with it?
posted by cross_impact at 10:25 AM PST - 21 comments

Finalists for the first-ever Vimeo Awards, culled form over 6500 submissions, these are the 45 finalist films in 9 categories.
posted by crunchland at 10:16 AM PST - 10 comments

Assessing the Terrorist Threat -- Bruce Hoffman and Peter Bergen describe how Al Qaida has evolved since the attacks in 2001, including the development of domestic USA networks and the increasingly diverse and decentralized nature of terrorism. Homeland Security and local law enforcement are not keeping up with the changes. [more inside]
posted by warbaby at 9:32 AM PST - 33 comments

The making of Goodfellas. Twenty years after the movie came out, Scorsese and the cast and crew talk about making the movie -- what was scripted, what wasn't, who was originally considered for the cast -- and how many real wiseguys made it on screen.
posted by devinemissk at 7:47 AM PST - 117 comments

The Washboard Serenaders (or was it the Washboard Rhythm Kings?) had one of the best, if not the best, fake trumpet players who ever walked the earth. 'Course, their washboard player weren't no slouch, neither. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:34 AM PST - 5 comments

NYC's underground grilled cheese [more inside]
posted by overeducated_alligator at 7:00 AM PST - 66 comments

On August 23rd, the great Japanese stop-motion animator and president of the Japan Animation Association Kihachirō Kawamoto passed away at the age of 85. Here is a selection of his beautiful short films (available on DVD) __ Farce Anthropo - Cynique (1970) - The Demon (1972) [more inside]
posted by louche mustachio at 5:04 AM PST - 6 comments

When releasing the Mozilla source code, Netscape's lawyers insisted that the code first be sanitized. In particular, "any text containing vulgar or offensive words or expressions; any text that might be slanderous or libelous to individuals and/or institutions," had to be removed. Here is a sample of what it looked like before that occurred.
posted by Obscure Reference at 4:57 AM PST - 46 comments

Cloture to force a vote on the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill has not been achieved. DADT will stand. Chances are not better in a possibly more Republican Senate post-November, and the bill is unlikely to pass before then. Republican voters against cloture: Every single senator; Democratic voters against cloture: Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor.
posted by jaduncan at 1:58 AM PST - 186 comments

Sometime its seems like you're living in a William Gibson novel. Was Stuxnet Built to Attack Iran's Nuclear Program?
posted by Long Way To Go at 12:06 AM PST - 51 comments